Vegetarian Recipe Blog

Low Fat Recipes

People who use Paav Bhaaji masala are very particular about the brand that they use. Most food bloggers swear by Nupur’s approved Everest Paav Bhaji masala brand. In a recent Facebook discussion people had few other recommendations. I am yet to try the Everest brand as I have heard raving reviews about it. I am hoping to try most recommended brands in the near future. I have started with the Baadshah brand and so far, I am loving the taste of this masala.

I have made Paav Bhaaji with it, the Tawa Pulao and also add it to regular sabzis.And boy does it change the character and flavor of the sabzi ! (in a good way).

If you prefer this version of Cauliflowersabzi which has minimal spices then you may want to try jazzing it up a little by adding some paav bhaji masala.

Remember the rant I made last about the relentless summer heat here in Texas, with the temperatures being above 100+ for the past 45 days? Guess what? The rain Gods finally answered our prayers and it rained here for a little bit providing much needed relief. Come Saturday morning, we woke up to the smell of the earth. And not to mention the grass, yard all soaked in water provided a happy sight. As I stood there it reminded me of the old age adage, that it is the simple things in life that gives you most joy.

Now take this puffed rice for example a simple ingredient sold most by the street vendors. I am sure most of us are familiar with this regional name than the translated English name, chirmure/kadle puri/ mamra/ muri/ pori. There are so many recipes using this humble ingredient, that it is hard to keep count. I guess, each region in India has its own specialty making it so unique. Our family favorites are the Khara Kadle Puri, this upma and the ladoo that is made of it.

This is referred to as Mandakki Usli/ Kadle puri oggarane in Kannada, Soosla in Konkani. This is a low calorie dish, good as breakfast or as evening/ afternoon snack. You can add veggies like potato, tomato, peas, carrots and make it filling and nutritious. If you are new to this or have not tasted it before then this tastes like the regular old poha upma/ aval upma and looks the same too (after it is cooked).

Wash the puffed rice and rinse it in water. Since they are light, they will float in water. Use your hands to press it down to absorb water and then squeeze out the water completely from the puffed rice and keep aside.

Take a big pan and heat oil in it. Add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds and when they splutter add the curry leaves, asafetida.

Cluster Beans are called Gorikayi or ChavaLikaayi in Kannada, Guvar in Hindi and Chitmitki/ Chitmitkesanga in Konkani. They are flat and smaller compared to the regular string beans and have slight bitter taste too. They are rich in proteins, fiber and considered very nutritious.

For us they are available in the Indian stores and if I am not mistaken they are present all the year around, so I cook this pretty often. They have a mild bitter taste, so I add little shredded coconut to the curry to compensate for it. If you want you can also add little bit of jaggery toward the end and that balances the spiciness of chillies and bitterness of the beans. This is an easy curry to make and uses readily available ingredients. The time consuming part though is the trimming of the edges; however once the trimming is done, the beans do not take a long time to cook.

For this curry I add usually add green chillies instead of the red chilli powder. Doing so retains the color of the beans but unfortunately I ran out of green chillies and hence used the chili powder. This pairs well with daal rice and or rotis/chapathis.